Texas Digital Newspaper Program

Library of Congress has added more newspapers to their Chronicling America website, including five new Texas newspapers:  the San Saba County News (1892-1893), the San Saba News (1876-1891), the San Saba Weekly News (1891-1892), the Shiner Gazette (1896-1911), and the Waco Daily Examiner (1878-1885).  The following titles  have expanded their chronological coverage in the collection:  the Fort Worth Daily Gazette (now through 1896) and the Jewish Herald – from Houston (now through 1911).  The Chronicling America website now has more than 1,442,000 newspaper pages from 15 states and the District of Columbia!

As of March 2009, the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America web site has additional Texas newspapers in its online collection. The Fort Worth Daily Gazette has now expanded from 1883 through 1890 and the Daily Herald (Brownsville) now covers 1892 through 1906. A new title, the Fort Worth Weekly Gazette, from 1888 to 1890 is also now online. All the newspapers included in Chronicling America are listed here.

The Tulia Herald is now available on the Portal to Texas History. The issues run from 1918 – 1962. This is the first newspaper we have digitized using the Library of Congress standards and guidelines required by the National Digital Newspaper Program. The project was funded with a Tocker Foundation grant.

The Library of Congress’ Chronicling America site now hosts editions of the Fort Worth Daily Gazette (1883-1888), the Houston Daily Post (1893-1903), the Jefferson Jimplecute (1889-1896 and 1907-1910),  The Jimplecute from Jefferson (1900-1907),  The Jewish Herald from Houston (1908-1910) and the Palestine Daily Herald (1903-1910).  These are newly available along with the Daily Herald of Brownsville, Texas (1892-1896).  This is the second installment of Texas newspapers into the Chronicling America site as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program.  You can find all available newspapers here; those from Texas as well as other states.

With our partners at the Bartlett Activities Center Historical Society, the Portal team intends to microfilm, digitize, and provide free online access to the Bartlett Tribune between 1902-1978. The town of Bartlett straddles the border of both Williamson and Bell Counties, and settlers began to populate the area in the 1850s. The Bartlett Tribune began publication in 1886, and served a vital role in the community by reporting on national, state, and local news, publishing obituaries and creating a record of legal notices for the community.   Funding for this project was provided by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

The Library of Congress’s Chronicling America site now hosts editions of the Daily Herald of Brownsville, Texas from July 1892 to December 1896.  This is the first batch of Texas newspapers to be loaded onto the Chronicling America site.  You can browse the newspapers or search through them.

The Portal team and our partners at the Center for American History at UT have received a new grant for digitizing “Early Texas Newspapers: 1829-1861,” a comprehensive grant to microfilm, digitize, and provide free public access to the earliest Texas newspapers held by the Center for American History. The Texas State Library and Archives Commission awarded $24,637 for the project, which will begin in September and finish in August of 2009.

The scope of the project includes sixty-one newspaper titles, and a total of 12,280 newspaper pages.  A partial representative list of selected titles includes:  The Texas Gazette (San Felipe de Austin), 1829-30, 60 pages; Telegraph & Texas Register (Houston), 1835-1845, 2,137 pages; Texas Republican (Brazoria), 1834-36, 127 pages; Galvestonian, 1839, 4 pages; Matagorda Bulletin, 1827-39, 128 pages; Redlander (San Augustine), 1841-1846, 140 pages; Southwestern American (Austin), 1849-53, 488 pages; Centinela (Brownsville, in Spanish), 1849, 4 pages; Texas Presbyterian (Victoria), 1846-48, 38 pages; Galveston News, 1848-1861, 112 pages; and Texas National Register (Washington), 1844-46, 88 pages.

The Tocker Foundation recently donated $30,000 to support digitization of the Tulia Herald. The Tocker Foundation distributes funds to support, encourage, and assist small rural libraries in Texas that serve populations of 12,000 or less. In a partnership with the Swisher County Library, the UNT Libraries will digitize and provide free online access to over 26,000 pages of the Herald from 1918 onwards. Chris Russett, the current owner and editor of the Tulia Herald, granted permission for UNT to host copyrighted issues past 1923 on the Portal to Texas History.